soundboards improving with age? or what else?

[EricFrankson@AOL.COM]

Dear Ron,
Not being any sort of authority on the technical aspects of wood and 
acoustics, I have a few questions.  It laps over into the piano/violin 
debate.  I've done a bit of reading on Stradivari violins, and the 
development of their 'sonorous' sound they are famous for.  During the time 
Stradivari crafted his stringed instruments, his were not considered of the 
best quality of the time.  Shops of Guinari and Amati were the taste of the 
day.  A large number of Stradivari's instruments were sent to monastaries all 
through Europe (couldn't sell'm at home, I guess).  On Stradivari's 
daughter's death bed (she had spent her life as a nun), she told a young man 
where to find the lost Strad's.  He went to every monastary in Europe, 
trading the 'old' Strad's for new replacement violins.  

Flash forward 300 years and the Strad's he collected (over 70 in all, I 
think) are now considered the pinacle of performance instruments.  I read one 
study that attributed the great sound to Stradivari's recipe for varnish and 
the 60 layers that were painstakingly applied then rubbed off.  It was the 
interaction between the varnish and the spruce over 300 years that caused the 
acoustic superiority of the Strad. 

If one looks at the spruce used in soundboards, the acoustic resonance is 
richer in those boards that have reached an ideal age.  Every tree is 
different.  Every board is different.  I think that in piano's, by the time 
the board has reached it's ideal age, it many times has already lost it's 
crown.  Secret varnish recipies and their application have been handed down 
through the generations of piano builders, but using new growth lumber (only 
40 - 50 years old) vs. the old growth lumber (100-300 years old) makes quite 
a bit of difference.  Take a board of spruce that's already aged 150 years, 
add the best recipe for varnishing the board, and you have the materials that 
make up the finest instruments produced today (Hamburg Steinway, Bosendorfer, 
Bechstein, Seiler, etc...).  

So on to the questions.  Violins have between 40 and 80 coats of varnish that 
are hand-applied which in turn determines the ultimate resonance of the wood. 
 How many coats of varnish are used on a performance piano?  Has a piano 
soundboard ever been produced that uses the traditional methods used to 
varnish violins (apply, rub-off, repeat)?  Does the idea that it's the 
combination of the wood and the varnish that ultimately determines the 
resonance of the soundboard (besides the fitting and installation) hold any 
water?

I appreciate your interest and hope the violin analogy hasn't left me open 
for too many e-barbs!

thanks, 
Eric Frankson
Family Music Centers
Las Vegas, NV